Settings - Advanced

The "Advanced" section of the Settings dialog: Logging, Aircraft selection, and UI

Settings are available from X-Plane's menu: Plugin > LiveTraffic > Settings.... In the "Advanced" section you can tweak some rather internal parameters of LiveTraffic, which you should definitely understand before changing.

Logging

Setting Default Description

Setting	Default	Description
Log.txt logging Level	Warning	Amount of information written to X-Plane's log file `Log.txt`: Debug is most, Fatal is least amount of information. Less than Error is not recommended. In case you can reproduce an error or weird behaviour then please set this to Debug before your reproduce once more. Then create a support request and attach the resulting log file.
Message Area	Info	Level of messages shown in the message area in the top right corner. Fatal shows least, Info most messages. Only selected messages appear there at all. With this setting you can further reduce the number of messages appearing. Less than Warning is not recommended, however.
Max Message List Len	250	Number of messages kept for display in the Messages List

Log.txt logging Level

Warning

Amount of information written to X-Plane's log file Log.txt: Debug is most, Fatal is least amount of information. Less than Error is not recommended.

In case you can reproduce an error or weird behaviour then please set this to Debug before your reproduce once more. Then create a support request and attach the resulting log file.

Message Area

Info

Level of messages shown in the message area in the top right corner. Fatal shows least, Info most messages.

Only selected messages appear there at all. With this setting you can further reduce the number of messages appearing. Less than Warning is not recommended, however.

Max Message List Len

250

Number of messages kept for display in the Messages List

Aircraft Selection

Setting Default Description

Setting	Default	Description
Max number of aircrafts	50	Maximum number of aircrafts to display.
Search distance	25 nm	Distance in nautical miles around current viewing position which is scanned for live flight data.
Snap to Taxiways	15 m	Aircraft positions will be updated to the closest taxiway or runway centerline, if there is such a taxiway/runway in a maximum distance of this many meters. The feature is completely switched off (and scenery no longer read) if set to `0`. See here for more details on taxiway snapping.
Live data refresh	20 s	Number of seconds to wait between two queries for live flight data. Note that data for any one aircraft does not update continuously. Querying data more often will not have much of an effect. If enlarging this value, then the Buffering Period and the A/c outdated period might automatically be enlarged, too, if necessary.
Above Height AGL of... increase refresh to	10000 ft 60 s	These two settins work together and define that a longer refresh period is to be used when the user's aircraft flies higher above ground than given here. This is to save request budget especially for OpenSky and ADSBEx connection, which operate with request limits.
Buffering Period	90 s	Seconds to buffer before displaying aircrafts. This serves as the look-ahead buffer for LiveTraffics data cleansing and take off/landing prediction and is equivalent to the time lag between LiveTraffic's aircraft display and reality. Must be greater or equal to the Live data refresh period. See an FAQ for more background.
Min./Max Network timeout	5	Number of seconds a network request is allowed to take before considering it failed. LiveTraffic varies the timeout between the Min. and Max. setting based on actual response times. A low value lets LiveTraffic "fail early" and rather retry quickly, but may also contribute to server overload.

Max number of aircrafts

Maximum number of aircrafts to display.

Search distance

25 nm

Distance in nautical miles around current viewing position which is scanned for live flight data.

Snap to Taxiways

15 m

Aircraft positions will be updated to the closest taxiway or runway centerline, if there is such a taxiway/runway in a maximum distance of this many meters.

The feature is completely switched off (and scenery no longer read) if set to 0. See here for more details on taxiway snapping.

Live data refresh

20 s

Number of seconds to wait between two queries for live flight data.

Note that data for any one aircraft does not update continuously. Querying data more often will not have much of an effect.

If enlarging this value, then the Buffering Period and the A/c outdated period might automatically be enlarged, too, if necessary.

Above Height AGL of... increase refresh to

10000 ft 60 s

These two settins work together and define that a longer refresh period is to be used when the user's aircraft flies higher above ground than given here. This is to save request budget especially for OpenSky and ADSBEx connection, which operate with request limits.

Buffering Period

90 s

Seconds to buffer before displaying aircrafts. This serves as the look-ahead buffer for LiveTraffics data cleansing and take off/landing prediction and is equivalent to the time lag between LiveTraffic's aircraft display and reality. Must be greater or equal to the Live data refresh period. See an FAQ for more background.

Min./Max Network timeout

Number of seconds a network request is allowed to take before considering it failed. LiveTraffic varies the timeout between the Min. and Max. setting based on actual response times. A low value lets LiveTraffic "fail early" and rather retry quickly, but may also contribute to server overload.

Contrails

LiveTraffic can produce contrails for jet aircraft. Contrail generation does not base on weather but solely on these settings. Keep in mind that contrails, using X-Plane's particle system, have the potential to affect performance, so change with care:

Setting Default Description

Setting	Default	Description
Min Altitude	25000 ft	Minimum altitude for contrails, no contrails below
Max Alt. (0 = off)	45000 ft	Maximum altitiude for contrails, no contrails above. Settings this to `0` disables contrail generation altogether
Life Time	25 s	How long does a contrail "puff" survive? Determines visible length of contrail.
Multiple Contrails	off	On: One contrail per aircraft engine, more realistic, but also more likely to affect FPS. Off: One contrail per aircraft.

Min Altitude

25000 ft

Minimum altitude for contrails, no contrails below

Max Alt. (0 = off)

45000 ft

Maximum altitiude for contrails, no contrails above. Settings this to 0 disables contrail generation altogether

Life Time

25 s

How long does a contrail "puff" survive? Determines visible length of contrail.

Multiple Contrails

off

On: One contrail per aircraft engine, more realistic, but also more likely to affect FPS. Off: One contrail per aircraft.

Miscellaneous

Setting	Default	Description
Own FMOD Instance	Disabled	Shall LiveTraffic create a separate FMOD instance for creating sound? By default, LiveTraffic integrates into X-Plane 12's FMOD engine, which might help manage system resources. In X-Plane 11, or when this option is Enabled, LiveTraffic creates its own FMOD instance.

Setting

Default

Description

Own FMOD Instance

Disabled

Shall LiveTraffic create a separate FMOD instance for creating sound? By default, LiveTraffic integrates into X-Plane 12's FMOD engine, which might help manage system resources. In X-Plane 11, or when this option is Enabled, LiveTraffic creates its own FMOD instance.

Export

These settings control temporary (read: not saved to the configuration file) export of all received tracking data into a file named <X-Plane>/Output/LTExportFD - <timestamp>.csv. This export file can be used for analysis or for feeding back into LiveTraffic.

Setting Default Description

Setting	Default	Description
Export Tracking Data	Off	Export each received tracking data record from all active channels.
Export User Aircraft	Off	Export user's aircraft position every 15 seconds. The user's aircraft will be recorded with call sign "USER" to be able to identify it when fed back into LiveTraffic. Both export options can be on at the same time.
Export: Normalize Time	On	The timestamp logged into the export file usually is a Unix-like timestamp telling the time when the position record was valid. With this option enabled the timestamp will instead be number of seconds since start of export. This might simplify analysis and merging several files.
Export File Format	`RTTFC`	`AITFC` is an older, shorter format, `RTTFC` came with RealTraffic v9 and includes many more fields in the export.

Export Tracking Data

Off

Export each received tracking data record from all active channels.

Export User Aircraft

Off

Export user's aircraft position every 15 seconds. The user's aircraft will be recorded with call sign "USER" to be able to identify it when fed back into LiveTraffic.

Both export options can be on at the same time.

Export: Normalize Time

The timestamp logged into the export file usually is a Unix-like timestamp telling the time when the position record was valid. With this option enabled the timestamp will instead be number of seconds since start of export. This might simplify analysis and merging several files.

Export File Format

RTTFC

AITFC is an older, shorter format, RTTFC came with RealTraffic v9 and includes many more fields in the export.

If you want to make sense of the data in the export file, then you can insert the following header line in front of the export file and open it in your favorite spreadsheet application:

For AITFC format:

AITFC,hexid,lat,lon,alt,vs,airborne,hdg,spd,cs,type,tail,from,to,timestamp

For RTTFC format:

RTTFC,hexid, lat, lon, baro_alt, baro_rate, gnd, track, gsp, cs_icao, ac_type, ac_tailno, from_iata, to_iata, timestamp, source, cs_iata, msg_type, alt_geom, IAS, TAS, Mach, track_rate, roll, mag_heading, true_heading, geom_rate, emergency, category, nav_qnh, nav_altitude_mcp, nav_altitude_fms, nav_heading, nav_modes, seen, rssi, winddir, windspd, OAT, TAT, isICAOhex,augmentation_status,authentication

User Interface

Setting	Default	Description
Message Window		Clicking the button [Reposition Message Wnd] opens the message window, by default in the top right corner, allowing you to reposition and resize it to your liking.
Transparent Settings	Off	Display this Settings window as a transparent window just like the Aircraft Information Window. Changes to this toggle require you to re-open the Settings.
Font Scaling	100%
Opacity	25%	Opacity of both the Aircraft Information Window (where this same value can be change, too) and a transparent Settings window. 100% means full black background, 0% means no background at all.

Setting

Default

Description

Message Window

Clicking the button [Reposition Message Wnd] opens the message window, by default in the top right corner, allowing you to reposition and resize it to your liking.

Transparent Settings

Off

Display this Settings window as a transparent window just like the Aircraft Information Window. Changes to this toggle require you to re-open the Settings.

Font Scaling

100%

Opacity

25%

Opacity of both the Aircraft Information Window (where this same value can be change, too) and a transparent Settings window.

100% means full black background, 0% means no background at all.

The [Reset to Defaults...] button allows you, after a confirmation prompt, to reset all Advanced Settings to their respective defaults as documented here.

Last updated 6 months ago